A blog that focuses on our unique program to teach children to gentle wild horses and start colts using natural horsemanship. This blog discusses our efforts to prevent the extinction of the Corolla Spanish Mustang. We are the home of Tradewind, a formerly wild Corolla Spanish mustang stallion who was named the 2011 National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year by the Horse of the Americas Registry. We are an American Indian Horse Registry Hall of Fame Farm.

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Sunday, October 12, 2014

An Educational Facility

Yesterday was the first day that these riders had ever worked to tan deer skins. Work is the word for it. Hide tanning and rawhide production is on of the most laborious tasks that I have ever undertaken. All the way through college and law school I worked at Jamestown Settlement. While there I developed a number of stone age skills. At Jamestown we taught by demonstrating, explaining and hands on participation, all backed by solid research.

That is what we are emulating at the horse lot. That is part of what makes our program unique. Consider yesterday's activities:

We fed the hogs and replaced some posts. As the kids arrived we brought Manny, beautiful young Choctaw into the round pen. Several kids worked him on ground work. They saddled him. KC and Atilla mounted up. Lloyd even rode him a bit in the round pen. A family of visors came by and we gave them a tour of the horses and told them about our program. Hailey put another Choctaw horse in the round pen and demonstrated how we train.

Chloe took Polished Steel, an untrained Corolla, into the round pen and gentled her to the point that she freely accepted a blanket. We did not do mounted archery yesterday.

We were too busy with the deer hides.

And none of this is brain surgery. Anyone who cares about kids and horses who is willing to work hard to learn and practice natural horsemanship can develop a program like ours.

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About Me

In my coat and tie life I am a prosecutor in Smithfield, Virgina. In my boots and blue jeans life am Executive Director of the Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc, an non profit organizations which administers Mill Swamp Indian Horses. We raise mustangs, including the rare and endangered Corolla Spanish Mustangs. We teach natural horsemanship to students as young as five years old. I have written several articles on natural horsemanship and recently published my first book, "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Learning From Wild Horses and Small Children. I was a recipient of the Keeper of the Flame Award from the American Indian horse Association for our efforts to preserve the Corolla Spanish mustangs and in 2009 we were recognized by the Horse of the Americas Registry with the Carol Stone Ambassador Award. In 2011 we received the Currituck Star Award for our Corolla preservation efforts.
My wife, Beth Edwards and I have three daughters and five grandchildren. See our web site, www.msindianhorses.com

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Contact us at msindianhorses@aol.com in order to learn more about enrolling in our informative and affordable on line class on Natural Horsemanship, Natural Horse Care, and Natural Hoof Care. This no frills instruction explains how the training techniques, horse care and hoof trimming methods used at Mill Swamp Indian Horses.

"The Horse, The Herd, and The Hoof", allows even novices to develop the kind of relationships with their horses that we all should strive for.